COMMONWEALTH OF AUSTRALIA (ABN: 122 104 616)

Saturday, June 6, 2009

Americans in Gabe Watson's home state of Alabama have reacted with fury, disgust and humour at the jail sentence handed down in a Queensland court for the honeymoon diving death of his wife, Tina.

Watson, with good behaviour, will be a free man within 12 months.

"It makes me sick, he should get 40 years for sure! Loser!" a reader vented on Alabama's Birmingham News website on Friday.

Another wrote: "One year. That is pathetic. I hope that when he does get out and returns home everyone gives him hell."

Tina's friends and relatives also used the Birmingham News website to show their anger.

"I am one of Tina's cousins and we are completely and totally outraged by this sentence ... what a complete slap in the face to Tina's family," the cousin wrote.

Watson made a surprise deal with Queensland prosecutors, agreeing to plead guilty to the manslaughter of his 26-year-old wife.

Prosecutors did not pursue a murder charge.

Tina died on October 22, 2003, while scuba diving with her husband of just 11 days on Queensland's Great Barrier Reef. The couple married in Alabama and chose Australia as their honeymoon destination.

Watson, 32, a certified rescue diver, said he panicked when his wife got into trouble during the dive.

Prosecutors told Queensland's Supreme Court Watson "virtually extinguished any chance" of Tina's survival when he allowed her to sink to the ocean floor without making any serious attempt to retrieve her, inflate her buoyancy vest or remove weights from her belt.

Another diver told a Queensland coronial inquest last year Watson engaged in an underwater "bearhug" with his wife.

Tina's death received widespread publicity in the US, with NBC's investigative news program, Dateline, profiling the case and Tina's grieving parents appearing on numerous other news shows.

The case drew comparisons to the 2002 death of Laci Peterson, a pregnant 27-year-old Californian woman whose husband, Scott Peterson, was found guilty for her murder and sentenced to death.

Another warned Americans the US judicial system will follow Australia's perceived lenient system under new president Barack Obama.

"Get ready for the Australian Judicial System, it's coming to America under Obama," a reader submitted.

"Australia has outlawed firearms, and disarmed law abiding citizens. Crime has skyrocketed. (I'm SHOCKED!) Of course the criminals still have and use guns ... Australia has legalised prostitution, and even put out ads and paid prostitutes to come to Australia for the Olympics!"

While most readers were furious about Watson's sentence, others joked Australia seemed like a place to go for Americans who want to do away with their wives.

"I'm booking a vacation to Australia right now for me and the ol' lady," a reader wrote.

6 Jun 2009

Anglo Masonic Justice at it's BEST.

Proves that under the right circumstances, you can murder someone, AND get away with it.

Home and Away star Jodi Gordon has reportedly apologised to friends and family after a bizarre(you call cheating bizzare???) episode involving an armed police swoop in an exclusive Sydney suburb and a suspected bikie.

She and her companion — named by the Daily Telegraph as Sydney "ladies man" Mark James Judge — had called police saying up to five gun-toting men were trying to break in.

But the apparent threat, taken seriously after Sydney's recent outbreak of bikie-related violence, was soon revealed to be incorrect.

Friends last night told the Telegraph Gordon had not met Judge prior to their wild episode and could not remember much of what happened that Wednesday night. They said the Logie winner was distressed by the events, and was sorry for the pain it had caused those close to her.

Gordon appeared at work on the set of Home And Away yesterday while Judge's lawyer told the media the pair had done nothing wrong.

"My client is very concerned about the welfare of the young lady in question — she has done absolutely nothing wrong in this and she should not be crucified," the Telegraph quoted Stephen Alexander as saying.

"Nothing took place, nothing unlawful, nothing improper #&151; he just wants to get on with his life."

Gordon's Tuesday night began quietly when she took four girlfriends out to dinner in Kings Cross.

As the night wore on her friends went home, and Gordon ended up at Judge's waterfront unit, the Telegraph said.

Judge is well known on Sydney’s Kings Cross nightclub strip.

He is due to appear in Penrith District Court for sentencing later this month after he pleaded guilty to two kidnapping-related charges stemming from an incident in 2005, the Telegraph reported.

Yesterday it was revealed police wearing bullet-proof vests stormed a unit in the exclusive Sydney suburb of Bellevue Hill about 5.30pm on Wednesday, and found Gordon and 29-year-old Judge hiding in the bedroom.

Gordon had been reported missing a few days earlier by her boyfriend Ryan Stokes, the son of Channel Seven boss Kerry Stokes.

Police arrived at the suspected bikie's home after he phoned authorities to say five men, two of them brandishing guns, were in his backyard trying to climb onto his balcony.

Police checked CCTV footage from the apartment building but there was no sign of the gunmen. Gordon agreed to be taken to a police station to answer questions, but Judge refused.

The scandal is the second to hit the Home And Away cast this week with rising star Lincoln Lewis — son of rugby league great Wally Lewis — admitting he had filmed a sex tape with another television starlet.(Read more: Lewis mum on attack over sex tape)

Thursday, June 4, 2009

Opposition Leader Malcolm Turnbull says the late media magnate Kerry Packer threatened to kill him in a falling-out over a deal to buy the Fairfax newspaper group in the early 1990s.

Mr Turnbull said the threat came when he told Mr Packer he planned to have him ejected from the consortium looking to buy Fairfax in 1991.

In a profile of Mr Turnbull written for the Quarterly Essay by Fairfax journalist Annabel Crabb, and quoted in Fairfax newspapers on Thursday, Mr Turnbull said: "Kerry was, um; Kerry got a bit out of control at that time. He told me he'd kill me, yeah. I didn't think he was completely serious, but I didn't think he was entirely joking either.

"Look, he could be pretty scary.

"He did threaten to kill me. And I said to him: `Well, you'd better make sure that your assassin gets me first because if he misses, you better know I won't miss you'.

"He could be a complete pig, you know. He could charm the birds out of the tree, but he could be a brute."

It is the first time Mr Turnbull has spoken out about his falling-out with Mr Packer and his role in leaking information that scuttled the Fairfax deal.

Mr Packer had insisted he would be a silent partner in the deal, which involved Mr Turnbull representing a group of junk-bond holders and now jailed Canadian media baron Conrad Black, Fairfax said.

Black and Mr Packer sacked the consortium's chief executive Trevor Kennedy, a friend of Mr Turnbull, and Mr Packer appeared to distance himself from Mr Turnbull, the newspapers said.

"I regarded what Kerry was doing as absolutely ... it was not only stupid but it was contrary to everyone's interests," Mr Turnbull told Ms Crabb.

"And he was taking the view that because he was bigger and richer than me, he could run me into the ground.

"So I rang Kerry Packer and I had a major row with him. I said: `If you want to do this, this is it. This is the end. There is no stepping back from this. This is war ... I told him I'd get him thrown out of the deal. I never make threats I don't carry out'."

Mr Turnbull delivered notes taken by Mr Kennedy to the head of the Australian Broadcasting Tribunal.

The notes indicated Mr Packer wanted control of Fairfax to take revenge on editors and journalists.

Mr Packer withdrew from the consortium days later.

4 Jun 2009

Thuggery and Cronyism

(Anglo - Masonic, which is NEVER mentioned in the mass media)

is part of business dealings at that level, and is the norm rather than an exception.

Steven Bellovin, professor of computing science at Columbia University, predicted the rise of online mercenaries prepared to carry out the "nasty things" governments did not want to be associated with. "Hackers are already doing nasty things for pay, and for covert operations deniability is useful," he told the AusCERT 2009 conference last month.

"I fear we may go back 200 years to letters of marque and reprisal, where governments commission somebody to attack another government's assets with perfect immunity under law."

A letter of marque is an official warrant authorising an agent to capture and destroy specified assets belonging to a foreign party that has committed an offence against the issuing nation. Professor Bellovin said the US constitution explicitly permitted the granting of such letters, "and the US has never disavowed the concept, unlike a number of other countries".

Aside from those scenarios, many governments were known to be engaged in cyber-spying or hostilities against regional rivals. "A couple of laptops are a lot cheaper than a couple of F16s (fighter aircraft)," he said. "If a US official said the Government was prepared to use nuclear weapons in response to cyber warfare, the other party doesn't need to engage in computer game playing. They just need to do nasty things to the US defence force's strategic communications network." Professor Bellovin said certain new blended exploits -- involving technical interventions and social engineering -- were beyond an average hacker, but not a nation-state.

"Suppose someone creates an innocuous-seeming flaw in a chip (used in particular devices), and plants code to trigger that flaw in certain applications," he said. "You could put a data file on a web page or in spam, the CPU (central processing unit) will execute that and a backdoor in the chip is triggered. "I see absolutely no reason why this would not happen." In one instance that came to public notice, a US government agency paid $US80,000 to an individual who had devised a Linux flaw. Hackers were already looking beyond the desktop and server stack, with the focus now on such things as a worm that targeted wireless routers and took them over.

"The hacker can spy on all the traffic and even turn the router into a botnet. Suddenly you have a virus on every computer in your house." Businesses and government agencies needed to be more cautious about "inside" attacks through their supply chains, particularly in relation to "software coding that is outsourced to dubious places". A recent report from Russia described how ATMs had been programmed to skim users' card details. When the attacker inserted a master-card, the machine printed out the account names and PINs of all users since the last download. Meanwhile, industrial spies after corporate secrets were achieving "high-end results for high-end customers".

"These are really broad-spectrum attacks involving networks," Professor Bellovin said. "One attacker got access to a network through U3 flash disks (essentially a USB stick and CD-Rom combined). The attacker left some flash disks lying around the parking lot, and people couldn't wait to install them to see what was on them. - The Australian

In a conversation that was held between an Information Technology Manager customer of Kaz's a and an Information Technology Consultant from Kaz, that was NOT reported in the general media, BUT the story was forwarded to a media outlet, it was revealed that a customer could quite easily save $500,000 in licensing and server support if a change was made from Microsoft to Unix server operating system backbone.

A business plan was presented to the customer, to which the customer agreed with. Since Information Technology projects were going through Kaz, as Kaz was the IT solutions provider, Kaz management had to approve of any change to the infrastructure.

Kaz was an exclusively Microsoft shop, and since providing a solution to the customer with a SAVING of $500,000 by NOT going Microsoft, meant that the transaction would NEVER take place, to the DETRIMENT of the customer.

Kaz is an embattle IT 'solutions' provider, that exploits immigration laws between Australia and New Zealand, and provides cheap outsourced labour via a loophole. This low skilled workforce are charged to the customer at a premium rate, but fail to provide premium services

Customers are fully aware of this as the work is sub-standard, and as a result Kaz is the laughing stock of the Australian IT industry.

Kaz was bought by Telstra for $400 million (a money for mates deal), and subsequently Telstra had troubles flogging this dead horse

An article was written in The Age newspaper about the true cost of outsorcing from an anonymous sourcefrom Kaz .

A CHANCE conversation between Queensland's Department of Justice and Attorney-General and its laptop provider led to the revelation that a simple change in software licensing models could deliver more than $1million in savings.

The switch was a precursor to more savings, including the ability to efficiently consolidate Justice's data centres, said the agency's infrastructure management manager, Christopher Ruffin.

In mid-2008, the department changed laptop suppliers, choosing Dell over Toshiba thanks to new machines that came embedded with 3G connectivity. Several hundred Dell laptops running on Telstra Next G were purchased and, during the course of the transaction, the issue of VMware software licensing management arose, Ruffin recalls.

"We had to buy more VMware licences to continue our virtualisation plan and Dell recommended that we enter into a VMware enterprise licensing agreement (ELA)," Ruffin says Justice was using a Brisbane-based company to purchase VMware licences piecemeal but switching to an ELA with Dell would initially save the department up to $200,000, he said.

The department has about 4000 users and 320 virtual servers running on 20 physical hosts. It's mainly a Microsoft shop with some Red Hat Enterprise Linux and Sun Solaris. On the back of the ELA, Justice is set to save more than $500,000 on a server refresh in regional centres.

"We've got a regional rollout to put in a new file and print server and digital recording system for the courts. We're going to virtual those on two pieces of hardware and have multiple virtual environments that can be managed centrally," Ruffin says. - The Australian

Wednesday, June 3, 2009

To many, Australia is a land of opportunity, a 'political asylum' haven, a government supported refugee relocation program without having to work,and breed offspring at the support of the taxpayers.

It is perceived by the 'general' community at large that in Communistic countries there is NO choice, and people are not 'free', whereas under the 'democratic' (from ideas / philosophies of a Greek fella named Democrates) Capitalistic rule, there are no boundaries (theoretically).

From a health point of view, Australia has a 'free public' health system called Medicare.

In accordance with Global Policies, this kind of system must be withdrawn. In order to do this the government is pushing private health cover. BUT since we live in a democaracy...

There is also an OPTION to choose private health cover if one so desires.

BUT, The government has decided that it will fine you for not taking out PRIVATE health cover, via a penalty in your taxation bill that MUST be paid.

Are these people found in menial jobs like cleaning toilets in shopping centres, or sweep floors of the streets we walk, or are the locked away at home eating confectionery and junk food?

Do they breed more stupid fat people? Does their offspring have such high aspirations as their parents for example; Rubbish Tip Merchandise Sorter.

Illustration shown depicts female species of the Human race, who without any governmental supervision decided to breed at least 3 times resulting in offspring that are overweight (read burden to the healthy taxpaying community) with one young male offspring classified as OBESE (which is detrimental to the entire community AND environment at large-pun intended).

The head of the female in the illustration has been deliberately not shown, as it is a VERY specific look, ie fingerprint, and is akin to an inhabitant of the Trailer Park.

Even in nature the dung beetle serves a purpose, but in this case this 'human' dung beetle is a waste of the planets precious resources.

In a move that can only be described as a kick in the face to the consumer, Apple in it's tried and tested methods of locking down technology, and NOT offering consumers up to date hardware specifications, has a hit with the iphone and like products.

Communications competitors like Nokia, and Motorola, HP (Pocket PC platform) as an example have had cut and past, stereo bluetooth, and easy file transfer for quite some time.

It now seems like the accessory manufacturers are cashing in on the philosophy.

A product that is worth $5 out of China, sells in generic form for mp3 players, etc for approx $50-90 recommended retail price, BUT with the addition of an ipod interface is listed for a pocket thieving price of $179.

There is nothing wrong with a product like this existing for that price, BUT what is concerning that there is a plethora of muppets willing to pay that price.

In this wonderful world of Globalisation, economic uncertainty, and where political and economic boundaries are torn down we can rest assured that multinational franchises have cut the cost of production of their goods.

The problem that some cannot deal with is that these companies DO NOT pass the savings on to their customers.

From a reliable source within the franchise, it has been revealed that it cost Donut King to make one doughnut 1 cent, whilst the cost to the customer can vary from 60 cents to $2.00 (see illustration)

China has blocked access to Twitter, Flickr and other websites, two days ahead of the 20th anniversary of the Tiananmen Square crackdown, Reporters Without Borders (RSF) say, expressing "outrage" at the move.

"Reporters Without Borders is outraged by the blockage of a dozen websites such as Twitter, YouTube, Bing, Flickr, Opera, Live, Wordpress and Blogger in China," the media rights group said in a statement on Tuesday.

"The Chinese government stops at nothing to silence what happened 20 years ago in Tiananmen Square," RSF said.

"By blocking access to a dozen websites used daily by millions of Chinese citizens, the authorities have opted for censorship at any price rather than accept a debate about this event."

RSF said it had been notified by Chinese internet users that access to the websites began being blocked inside China on Tuesday.

There was no immediate comment from Microsoft, which recently launched its new search engine Bing, Yahoo!, which owns photo-sharing site Flickr, or Twitter to emails from AFP asking about the reported move by China.

Google-owned YouTube has been blocked inside China since March.

China's foreign correspondents' association on Tuesday condemned moves by authorities in Beijing to block reporting in the run-up to the anniversary of the Tiananmen Square crackdown.

The Foreign Correspondents' Club of China (FCCC) said it had received at least three reports of authorities blocking reporting at Tiananmen Square and intimidating journalists or their sources.

The country's communist leadership sent soldiers to forcibly clear the square and surrounding areas on the night of June 3-4, 1989, ending seven weeks of protests calling for political reforms.

Hundreds, possibly thousands, were killed in the crackdown, which remains a taboo subject in China.

A REAL estate agent in Houston who blogged about Anna Nicole Smith was jailed for contempt last week in a defamation case brought by the late Playboy model's mother.

Legal experts said bloggers are increasingly the targets of such litigation, which are testing the bounds of free speech.

Lyndal Harrington, who is accused of helping to spread falsehoods that Smith's mother Virgie Arthur married her stepbrother and abused Smith as a child, spent four nights in jail after she failed to comply with a court order to turn over her computer.

The 53-year-old grandmother claimed her computer was stolen during a burglary less than a week after it was subpoenaed.

A police officer testified that he believed the theft was staged and judge Tony Lindsay ordered Harrington to produce the computer by July 2 or she will again face incarceration.

Harrington says she is shocked that she is being sued for comments posted on someone else's blog to pass the time.

"I just voiced my opinion," said Lyndal Harrington of her posts about Smith and Arthur on the website Rose Speaks.

Like many bloggers, Harrington doesn't consider herself a publisher and did not realise she could be held liable for her posts.

"I got into this because my business had fallen apart in this economy and it was something to do," she said.

"I developed a lot of friendships with women who are retired or ill at home."

Three other bloggers are named in the suit along with Smith's former companion, Howard K. Stern, and Larry Birkhead, the father of her daughter, Dannielynn.

Ms Arthur alleges that the defendants conspired to defame her so she wouldn't get custody of Dannielynn, who could inherit up to $US88m ($109.59m).

"Lyndall Harrington is a liar who faked a burglary," said Neil McCabe who represents Ms Arthur.

"She's part of a conspiracy to defame my client and she's done her own defaming of my client."

Lawsuits against bloggers in the US have been doubling every year since 2004 with $US15m ($18.68m) in judgments so far against them, according to Robert Cox, president of the Media Bloggers Association.

News and Information, Print and Media, prior to the reach of the internet to the masses was kept in STRICT control of a few families worldwide.

Now, anyone can be an author, publish uncensored / politically uncomfortable information to the 'net.

In recent years, with the advent of web logging, there has been a plethora of information 'out there'.

This 'politics' is to revert the information flow back to the industrialists, with a slow closure of the internet, for whatever 'excuse' seen fit for the day, be it 'child porn', 'terrorism', etc, etc.

Free public healthcare in Australia may disappear in the next five years and be replaced by a US-style system, NSW Health director-general Debora Picone says.

"We are really on the edge of losing the universal healthcare system that this country has," Professor Picone told News Ltd.

"I would have (previously) said we'd had 10 years to run.

"It's now looking like we've got five years to run because the cost escalations are so significant and we haven't prepared ourselves."

Prof Picone and NSW Health Minister John Della Bosca are working on a plan to pool all state and federal funding in a move to slash red tape and eliminate overlap, News Ltd says.

The $13.2 billion state hospital budget would be integrated with commonwealth funding for Medicare, the pharmaceutical benefits scheme and aged care.

Mr Della Bosca said on Tuesday the overhaul was also aimed at eliminating cost and blame shifting between the federal and state governments.

"What we need is to improve the relationship between the various parts of the health system, make sure it works better together, and make sure of course that we stop the nonsense of cost shifting and game playing that's been happening for generations now," he told Fairfax Radio Network.

Mr Della Bosca will be holding a media conference on the issue at 10.15am (AEST) on Wednesday.

ninemsn 3 Jul 2009

NOT may be doomed but WILL be doomed.

Health services of the future WILL be for those who work or have money.

Just another way of killing people (by letting them die if they have no money) who are on the pension or social security,

Tuesday, June 2, 2009

Canberra is battling to reassure New Delhi that Australians aren't racist, fearful the outcry over attacks on Indian students may harm relations and stop the flow of lucrative education dollars.

New Delhi has raised its concerns about assaults on its students for more than a year, and is now warning it could jeopardise the numbers of Indians studying in Australia, worth $2 billion a year.

Prime Minister Kevin Rudd on Monday warned the attacks threatened to "impair" good relations with India, a valuable potential market for Australia with a growing middle class.

The issue threatens to erupt further after claims police were heavy-handed when breaking up an Indian protest rally that blocked a major Melbourne city intersection overnight.

Police believe that while some of the attacks may be racially-motivated, it is more likely part of a broader issue of escalating street violence.

During a conversation with Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, Mr Rudd told him Australia was a tolerant and embracing society.

"(I told him) the more than 90,000 Indian students in Australia are welcome guests in our country ... the more than 200,000 Australians of Indian descent are welcome members of the Australian family," he said.

"All Australians ... deplore and condemn these attacks. These are senseless acts of violence.

"Australia is a country of great diversity, harmony and tolerance. We are a multicultural nation and we respect and embrace diversity."

The assaults are attracting international headlines after Australia's Indian community began voicing outrage following the recent screwdriver stabbing of Sravan Kumar Theerthala, 25, in Melbourne.

According to Victorian police, 1,447 people of Indian origin were victims of crimes such as robberies and assaults in 2007/08, up from 1,082 the previous year.

Ajay Unni, a Sydney representative from the Federation of Indian Students of Australia, says Australia is only now interested because there is a threat of losing money.

"The main headlines always start with saying Australia is probably going to lose its multi-billion dollar industry," he told AAP.

"I don't really know where Kevin Rudd is coming from - is he coming from the space of losing revenue or is he really concerned."

Mr Unni said he had personally spoken to between 15 and 20 students who'd been attacked over the last few years.

He urged police to keep records of international student assaults.

"From a security standpoint the police department really has to beef up their multicultural staff and their completion process of every case that comes to them," Mr Unni said.

Some students had complained they'd tried to contact police many times but officers had not got back to them.

Trade Minister Simon Crean told reporters Indian officials were raising the issue with Canberra from early last year, prompting the federal government to write to the states.

He admits it could damage the education export sector.

"This is a safe place in which to live and work, it's part of the brand that Australia wants to promote more of, and we have to protect that brand," Mr Crean said.

"It could be damaging ... there's no point sending your loved ones here to study if they feel under threat."

The Rudd government moved last week to set up a roundtable to address issues affecting overseas students in Australia, a $15.5 billion service export industry.

And the Australian Greens are calling for an inquiry into overseas education in Australia, which it will try to set up when the Senate resumes later this month.